next »

[Chrissketch]

Something on BoingBoing caught my attention:

"Vimeo user Flight404 uploaded a triptastic collection of hyperdelic music visualizations."

This started me thinking about two games.

AudioSurf proved that that outside music can create compelling ways to affect gameplay and user experience. As opposed to something like Rez where music was important, but was a side affect of a pre-determined level environment and user interaction.

Warning Forever blew me away with the way it made an evolving boss the core component of play.

Now what if someone combined these things into a bullet-hell shmup composed of a series of procedurally produced bosses and attack cycles as determined by whatever music you put into the game? Note, the graphics wouldn't have to be mind blowing, they just have to relate to the beat and intensity of the music being analyzed.

Its just a thought I had, if someone wants to run with it go ahead. My programming skills end somewhere between "Hello" and "World" so I won't be attempting this. I can only imagine the nightmare it would be, not only to program this, but to do so in a way that would make a fun game. Otherwise, I think its feasible.

[Golds]

I may be wrong but I think some of the entries in the first Gamma tried to do this a bit.  Definitely procedural/FFT/music integrated gameplay is an area ripe for continued exploration.

[Farbs]

I was playing with kinda the inverse of this idea recently, thinking about what it would be like if in playing a game the player constructed a piece of music. It's a bit like the core Polychromatic Funk Monkey idea where the player constructs the level. I dunno where this is going really, but it's fun to think about.

[Chris Whitman]

I definitely want to do something music-related at some point, because the FFT is easy and fun to play with, but it's way out there on the back burner somewhere.

[joshg]

I was playing with kinda the inverse of this idea recently, thinking about what it would be like if in playing a game the player constructed a piece of music. It's a bit like the core Polychromatic Funk Monkey idea where the player constructs the level. I dunno where this is going really, but it's fun to think about.

Not to dissuade you from making something awesome, but if you want some inspiration (or maybe to just look at it and go, "Eh, I'd do a bunch of stuff differently"), here's a game that was going for the same music-making goal:

http://silverspaceship.com/beatit/

[Melly]

Those videos you showed there on that first post are inspiring. I didn't know you could do that kinda stuff with Processing.